Science Fiction
Dictionary
A B C D E F G H I J K L M N O P Q R S T U V W X Y Z
Latest By
Category:
Armor
Artificial
Intelligence
Biology
Clothing
Communication
Computers
Culture
Data Storage
Displays
Engineering
Entertainment
Food
Input Devices
Lifestyle
Living Space
Manufacturing
Material
Media
Medical
Miscellaneous
Robotics
Security
Space Tech
Spacecraft
Surveillance
Transportation
Travel
Vehicle
Virtual
Person
Warfare
Weapon
Work
"By the time I can take people out to where Hubble is looking, they won't be human anymore, by a long way."
- Larry Niven
 |
| Automatic Hotel (Hotel Hendrix) | ||
| A fully automated hotel; complete services provided from check-in to check-out. |
Takeshi Kovacs selects a low cost hotel. The Hendrix.
| The lobby was deserted, but there was a faint glow coming from a counter on the far wall. I picked my way toward it, past low armchairs and shin-hungry metal-edged tables, and found a recessed monitor screen swarming with the random snow of disconnection. In one corner, a command pulsed on and off in English, Spanish and kanji characters.
SPEAK I looked around and back at the screen. No one. I cleared my throat. The characters blurred and shifted. SELECT LANGUAGE. "I'm looking for a room," I tried, in Japanese out of pure curiosity. The screen jumped into life so damatically that I took a step backwards. From whirling, multicolored fragments it rapidly assembled a tanned Asian face above a dark collar and tie. The face smiled and changed into a Caucasian female, aged fractionally, and I was facing a blonde thirty-year-old woman in a sober business suit. Having generated my interpersonal ideal, the hotel also decided that I couldn't speak Japanese after all. "Good day, sir. Welcome to the Hotel Hendrix, establishhed 2087 and still here today. How may we serve you... We have a number of rooms, all fully cabled to the city's information and entertainment stack. Please indicate your preference for floor and size." "I'd like a tower room, west facing. The biggest you've got." The face recoiled into a corner inset, and a three-dimensional skeleton of the hotel's room structure etched itself into place. A selector pulsed efficiently through the rooms and stopped in one corner, then blew up and rotated the room in question... "A deposit is required," the hotel said diffidently. "For stays of more than fourteen days the suum of six hundred dollars U.N. should be deposited now..." |
| From Altered Carbon,
by Richard Morgan. Published by Del Rey in 2003 Additional resources -
|
Later in the story, Kovacs returns to the Hotel Hendrix and it reveals another cool feature:
"You have a visitor," the hotel said chattily...
Compare to the Robotnik automated hotel in Harry Harrison's 1970 novel The Stainless Steel Rat's Revenge.
The upper levels of the Hendrix were in darkness relieved only by the occasional glow of dying illuminum tiles, but the hotel obligingly lit my way with neoon tubes that flickered on in my path and died out again behind me. It was a weird effect, making me feel as if I was carrying a candle or torch.
Comment/Join this discussion ( 4 ) | RSS/XML | Blog This |
Additional
resources:
More Ideas
and Technology from Altered Carbon
More Ideas
and Technology by Richard Morgan
Tech news articles related to Altered Carbon
Tech news articles related to works by Richard Morgan
Automatic Hotel (Hotel Hendrix)-related
news articles:
- Unmanned Hotels Project By Itochu/Orico
- Robot Resorts In 50 Years?
| Google's Cartographer Backpack For Indoor Mapping |
| Live Luggage Ready To Roll |
| Porter 'Robots' For Baggage, If Not People |
| Tweel - (Almost) A Smart Wheel |
Want to Contribute an
Item?
It's easy:
Get the name of the item, a
quote, the book's name and the author's name, and Add
it here.
| <Previous | Next> |
|
|
|
Technovelgy (that's tech-novel-gee!) is devoted to the creative science inventions and ideas of sf authors. Look for the Invention Category that interests you, the Glossary, the Science Fiction Invention Timeline, or see what's New.
|
Science Fiction
Timeline
1600-1899
1900-1939
1940's 1950's
1960's 1970's
1980's 1990's
2000's 2010's
'I filled your bullet hole with flesh putty and the lattice.'
'... it will be easy to form an alphabet which shall enable us to converse with the inhabitants of the moon.'
'From the tower's huge octagonal base radiate wide silvery strips...'
'It was about five feet long... a black bullet head and red camera eyes.'
'The Law Society has strict rules on the use of pseudo-intelligent software...'
